PAM. 


AFRICA _ _ _ 


lpen*lptctures  of 
©ur  Hfrtcan  fTDieetons. 


EXTRACTS 

FROM 

DR.  POHLMAN’S 
LETTERS. 


1900. 


Published  by  tbe  General  Literature  Committee 
of  tbe 

Woman’s  Home  and  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
of  the  Lutheran  Church, 

[General  Synod. J 

2419  Maryland  Ave.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

1900. 

2  Cents  Each.  15  Cents  a  Dozen. 


No.  170. 


ZPcn  -  ZPic  turcs  of  Our 

African  7/fission, 

(EXTRACTS  FROM  Dr.  POHLMAN’S  LETTERS.) 


Glimpses  of  Home  Life.— As  I  look  out  of 
my  door,  this  is  what  I  see  :  a  lot  of  boys  play¬ 
ing-  in  the  mission  yard — they  laugh,  jump, 
tussle,  roll  hoop,  play  marbles  (with  coffee  ber¬ 
ries),  and  are  having  a  good  time  in  general.  It 
is  their  “off  hour,”  for  shortly  they  will  each 
take  a  half  bushel  basket  and  start  with  it  on 
their  heads  for  the  coffee  farm  to  pick  the  beau¬ 
tiful  berries  and  “tote”  them  back  on  their 
beads.  The  girls  go  to  another  part  of  the 
farm  and  do  the  same  kind  of  work.  It  is  not 
hard  and  they  seem  to  enjoy  it.  In  a  couple  of 
months  the  crop  will  be  in,  and  then  school  will 
open  and  they  will  begin  to  study.  In  the  beau¬ 
tiful  moonlight  nights  we  are  now  having  they,, 
play  till  half-past  nine  out  on  the  playground. 
What  impresses  us  most  is  that  there  is  not  the 
least  scramble  for  “  being  first,”  as  among  our 
children  at  home  They  yield  so  gracefully  to 
one  another.  No  pouting,  no  sulking,  no  crowd¬ 
ing  to  be  in  the  lead.  And  this  is  characteristic 
of  the  native.  One  is  elected  to  be  “  head  ”  and 
the  others  all  follow.  In  all  their  plays  this  is 


noticeable.  They  are  so  amiable,  loving-,  gen- 
tle  and  “nice”  about  their  games  and  plays, 
that  one  is  rarely  hurt.  This  is  true  of  boys  as 
well  as  of  girls.  They  treat  each  other  far 
more  courteously  than  our  childi-en  at  home. 
For  the  time  being  we  forget  we  are  in  heath¬ 
endom.  With  all  the  noise,  not  a  cross  word 
has  been  heard,  not  a  black  look,  not  a  push, 
not  a  semblance  of  petulence.  There  are  so  many 
lovable  traits  about  these  negroes.  Though 
their  faces  are  black,  they  always  look  happy. 

Every  afternoon  at  5  o’clock  they  all  come  in¬ 
to  the  chapel  and  repeat  a  verse  of  Scripture. 
We  then  sing,  pray  and  read  the  Bible.  After 
tea,  we  often  gather  the  children  into  the  parlor 
and  have  some  music,  games,  and  a  looking 
over  “  picture-books.  ”  This  is  always  a  pleas¬ 
ant  hour,  for  it  gives  an  opportunity  to  talk 
freely  to  every  one,  and  it  is  surprising  how 
much  at  home  even  the  newest  children  feel  in  a 
short  time.  On  Sundays,  we  have  a  morning 
service  at  7  o’clock,  led  by  the  pastor  ;  at  eleven, 
regular  church  service  ;  at  one,  Sunday-school, 
and  at  five,  a  young  peoples’  service.  After  the 
morning  service,  1  often  hold  a  service  at  the 
country  kitchen,  where  our  native  wage-hands 
and  other  natives  are  to  be  found. 


“  He  don  die,  come  quick  !  ”  That  is  the  cry 
that  startled  us  last  night.  On  investigation,  we 
learned  that  one  of  our  little  fellows  had  been 
looking  for  birds’  nests  up  in  the  big  plum  tree, 
and,  the  branches  being  slippery  from  the  last 
six  days’  continual  rains,  he  fell  from  the  top 
branches,  striking  against  all  the  lower  ones  in 


his  descent,  landing-  on  his  head  with  a 
heavy  thump,  and  raising  a  lump  on  his  soull- 
cap  as  large  as  the  egg  he  did’nt  get.  He  was 
tenderly  lifted  up  by, one  of  our  older  boys  and 
carried  to  our  parlor  sitting-room.  It  is  won¬ 
derful  to  see  the  gentleness  of  these  boys  when 
they  understand  that  you  want  them  to  do  this 
kind  of  work  “  softly.”  A  careful  examination 
showed  no  bones  broken,  but  lots  of  bruises,  with 
a  cheek  cut.  All  night  the  lad  lay  moaning, 
while  four  of  the  older  boys  kept  watch,  reading 
their  Bibles  and  looking  at  the  illustrated  pa¬ 
pers  to  keep  awake.  This  boy’s  name  is  Albert 
H.  Studebaker,  close  and  intimate  friend  of 
Prank  P.  Manhart,  who  recently  had  a  bad  fall 
from  the  loft  in  which  he  was  sleeping.  It 
keeps  us  in  close  touch  with  the  big  men  at 
home  to  have  their  name-sakes  here.  Some 
day,  when  the  boys  grow  larger,  we  will  tell 
them  who  it  is  that  we  have  named  them  after, 
and  try  to  train  them  up  in  the  same  kind  of 
work  as  those  whose  names  they  bear.  For  the 
most  part,  these  youngsters  do  very  well.  Only 
occasionally  they  need  the  rod  instead  of  the 
kind  word.  Recently  it  became  necessary  to 
give  Luther  Kuhlmann  a  sound  thrashing,  be¬ 
cause  he  thought  he  could  get  out  of  doing  “his 
part  of  work.”  It  was  a  fine  opportunity  to  tell 
him  how  faithful  and  hard  a  worker  is  his  name¬ 
sake.  Brethren,  pray  for  these  little  black 
saints  in  embryo,  for  they  may  yet  work  a 
mighty  change  here. 


Weather. — This  is  the  season  when  we  have 
what  is  known  as  “  weather”  in  April  at  home. 
You  wake  up  in  the  morning  to  hear  the  rain¬ 
drops  beating  on  the  iron  roof,  you  go  to  bed  at 
night  and  fall  asleep  to  the  music  of  the  steady 


“  drip-drop  ”  of  the  big  drops  from  the  eaves  of 
the  house,  you  eat  your  meals  accompanied  by 
the  howling  of  the  wind  and  the  rush  of  the 
storm  as  it  beats  now  on  this  side  and  now  on 
that,  you  conduct  morning  and  evening  prayers 
while  the  heavens  hang  heavy  with  waters  eager 
to  fall  faster  than  gravitation  lets  them,  you  go 
to  see  the  sick  tucked  snugly  in  a  rubber  coat, 
boots  and  a  slouch  hat,  while  the  umbrella  only 
shows  how  much  rain  it  can’t  keep  off.  You 
take  off  damp  clothing  at  night  and  put  on  damp 
clothing  in  the  morning,  you  light  the  damp 
wood  with  a  match-box  and  kerosene  oil,  you  cook 
with  pepper  clogged,  salt  wet,  maccaroni  mouldy 
and  spices  generally  sniceless  ;  you  start  the 
laundry  to  wash  early  Monday  morning  and  are 
glad  if  half  of  it  is  dry  enough  to  iron  by  Satur¬ 
day  night;  you  begin  your  study  to  find  after  a 
while  that  there  seems  to  be  water  even  on  your 
brain,  for  all  the  thought  that  you  seem  to  have, 
while  the  dull  ache  creeps  slowly  up  your  back 
and  you  wonder  whether  at  your  age  you  are 
already  suffering  with  rheumatism.  On  taking 
a  stiff  dose  of  quinine  and  phenacetine,  you  find 
that  it  was  only  the  *‘Ager”  that’s  troubling 
your  bones.  Everything  you  touch  has  a  damp 
wet  feeling,  and  you  wish  you  could  feel  dry  for 
once  ;  then  you  light  the  oil  stove  and  dry  and 
warm  yourself  in  front  and  find  that  the  damp¬ 
ness  has  only  been  sent  to  the  back  of  your 
body.  Yes,  this  is  weather. 


Holidays. — This  year  (1898)  we  had  a  great 
Christmas  !  The  chapel  platform  was  rich  with 
palm-trees,  while  the  parlor  had  palm  branches 
thickly  clustered  around  it,  tilled  with  tree  orna¬ 
ments  like  those  we  use  at  home.  The  girls’ 
school-room  was  transformed  into  a  bower  of 


palm  leaves,  which  likewise  were  filled  with 
ornaments,  dolls  and  small  gifts. 

A  week  before  Christmas  the  eyes  of  the  boys 
grew  big  as  saucers  at  the  sight  of  boxes  and 
barrels  that  came  from  America.  They  knew 
that  “  Christmas  lived  there.”  As  these  were 
opened  they  stood  around,  eager  to  help — and 
incidentally  to  see  what  the  many  bundles  con¬ 
tained.  Six  months  before  the  boys  had  asked 
for  some  drums  and  fifes.  For  these  they  watch¬ 
ed  expectantly,  and  when  they  saw  them  cried 
out:  ‘‘Dem  drums  don  come,  an’  de  fifes,  too 
don  come!  ”  The  good  folks  at  home  had  re¬ 
membered  our  children  very  generously,  both  in 
quantity  and  assortment.  It  would  have  abun¬ 
dantly  repaid  every  donor  could  they  have  seen 
the  curiously  pleased  faces  and  heard  the  de¬ 
lighted  cries,  as  the  children  saw  first  this  and 
then  that  toy  or  article  of  value  in  their  g'ifts. 
“  Look  dar  !  ”  “  See  dat !  ”  “  Hi,  ain’t  dat  fine 

fur  true!”  “See  my  ’spenders!”  “Look  at 
my  doll-baby  !  ”  Boys  and  girls  were  alike  in 
their  demonstrations  of  joy.  Yes,  it  was  a  big 
Christmas  ! 

Again  has  the  “Glorious  4th”  of  Liberia 
been  celebrated  in  this  land  of  liberty.  The 
26th  of  July  is  the  “Independence  Day”  of  the 
people  of  this  little  republic  on  the  West  Coast 
of  Africa.  It  is  now  near  dark.  For  hours 
those  dusky  “  pickaninnies  ”  have  been  having 
a  good  time.  And  how  they  have  rigged  them¬ 
selves  out !  The  boys  sewed  white  tape  up  the 
sides  of  their  trousers,  bound  colored  kerchiefs 
around  their  elbows  and  waists  and  armed  them¬ 
selves  with  sticks  (for  guns),  rough  wooden 
sword§,  and,  with  half  a  dozen  empty  five-gal¬ 
lon  oil  cans  (for  drums),  have  made  the  hours  of 
the  day  noisy  with  their  juvenile  military  spec¬ 
tacle. 


“  Shoulder  arms  !  ”  Every  stick  goes  up  in 
the  air. 

"Take ’em  down  again  !”  and  they  drop  to 
the  ground. 

"  Salute  de  President  !”  Every  stick  is  given 
a  flourish. 

"Forward,  march,  sachay  right,  march,  close 
open  ranks.  Break  ranks  and  git  into  line 
again  !  ” 

This  is  one  order  !  They  got !  What  march¬ 
ing  !  One  file  goes  this  way  and  the  other  that. 
Their  movements  might  puzzle  a  West  Point 
drill  master,  but  the  boys  enjoy  it. 

While  the  boys  are  "playing  soldier”  the 
girls  are  also  imbued  by  the  martial  spirit  for  a 
while  and  march  by  themselves,  though  they  do 
not  look  like  formidable  amazons  in  their  clean 
new  dresses. 

Thus  ended  our  26th,  the  fiftieth  of  Liberia’s 
independence.  Long  may  she  live  and  do  good 
to  her  own  kith  and  kin,  and  point  them  up  to 
;the  "  Author  of  Liberty  ”  (1898). 


Work  Among  the  Girls. — We  have  been 
"moving.”  The  new  lady  missionaries,  after 
four  and  a  half  months’  of  acclimating,  "took  up 
arms  against  the  sea  of  troubles”  and  started 
to  cross  the  Rubicon — the  Rubicon  in  this  case 
being  the  river  St.  Paul,  which  divides  the 
girls’  work,  on  one  side  of  its  banks,  from  that 
of  the  boys’  on  the  other  of  the  river.  The 
"arms”  in  this  case  were  quite  formidable, 
consisting  of  an  entire  outfit  of  house-cleaning 


apparatus,  with  which  they  made  the  dirt  fly, 
said  dirt  differing-  somewhat  from  same-named 
material  at  home,  in  that  it  was  more  African 
in  its  nature,  consisting  largely  of  masses 
of  spider-webs,  bug-a-bug  nests,  wood-lice, 
haunts,  insects’  habitats,  etc. 

Then  came  the  moving.  Household  effects,, 
dogs,  poll-parrots,  school  supplies,  wearing  ap¬ 
parel,  chop,  and,  last  and  most  important,  the 
little  girls.  This  began  on  September  26th,  and 
when  everything  had  been  taken  across  the 
river  in  large  canoes,  the  “Emma  V.  Day  Memo¬ 
rial  School  for  Girls  ”  was  started  in  Muhlen¬ 
berg  Mission  The  school  was  practically 
opened  on  Sunday,  October  2,  when  services 
were  held  in  the  school -room.  We  commended 
the  work  to  God’s  hands,  invoking  His  blessing 
upon  it,  and  asked  him  to  carry  out  what  had 
been  the  cherished  plan  of  the  saint  in  whose 
name  the  school  was  founded. 

The  latest  addition  to  the  work  of  the  mission 
is  in  the  girls’  school,  and  consists  of  nothing- 
more  euphonious  in  name  than  a  plain  sewing 
circle  for  women.  This  meets  once  a  month. 
Women  come  for  miles  to  attend  the  meetings. 
They  have  Bible  reading,  prayer  and  singing. 
They  talk  and  eat  and  sew.  But  this  is  not  all. 
They  learn  to  know  each  other  better,  get  into 
touch  with  the  mission,  see  the  workings  of  the 
school,  are  taught  to  cut  and  sew  plain  gar¬ 
ments,  hear  articles  read  from  magazines,  are 
entertained  by  the  two  workers  at  the  head  of 
the  school,  and  in  many  ways  are  given  a  broader 
outlook  of  the  world  and  have  their  inner  life 
deepened.  It  is  a  little  leaven.  It  will  show 
later  on  by  its  fruit.  In  the  meantime,  they 
greatly  appreciate  the  opportunity  afforded 
them. 


A  King’s  Daughters  Circle  has  also  been 
formed  in  this  school,  and  the  older  girls  drawn 
into  it.  Others  from  the  neighborhood  will  soon 
be  associated  with  the  circle,  and  the  King  will 
have  many  daughters  who  will  render  him  lov¬ 
ing  service. 


Evangelistic  Work. — We  paid  a  visit  to 
one  of  our  neighboring  towns  just  before  the 
communion  services,  to  press  the  invitation  to 
attend  church.  Here  we  found  a  number  of  the 
people  in  one  of  their  country  kitchens.  We 
made  it  a  regular  pastoral  visit.  We  urged  the 
necessity  of  their  coming  regularly.  They 
plead  :  “We  no  got  clothes  for  dem  ch’rch  ; 
we  coffee  doan  bring  nottin’  at  de  stor’;  de  cop¬ 
pers  is  scarce  ;  de  picanninies  dey  cries  in  de 
ch’rch ;  an’  we  can’t  come  annyhow,  for  we 
clothes  is  bad.”  Then  we  quoted  the  “I  pray 
thee  have  me  excused”  parable,  and  asked  them 
what  they  could  carry  into  heaven  with  them 
after  death.  We  pointed  out  the  need  of  the 
“wedding  garment”  which  could  be  had  “without 
money  and  without  price;”  and  told  them  of  the 
pressing  invitation  of  the  king  to  the  feast. 
Then  we  pictured  the  glories  of  the  heavenly 
home  as  compared  to  that  of  earth,  and  of  the 
love  of  God  who  provided  all  this  for  us.  That 
brought  them  over,  and  brought  them  to  church 
again.  Thus  we  fish  patiently  for  men — and  be¬ 
lieve  we  get  them. 

Yesterday’s  congregation,  at  a  town  twenty 
miles  from  the  mission, was  one  of  the  best  I 
have  had  so  far,  paying  the  closest  attention  to 
all  that  was  interpreted  to  them,  saying  they 
were  sorry  for  all  their  wrong  doings,  of  which, 
it  is  not  difficult  to  convict  them  by  the  Spirit’s 


aid.  All  knelt  in  prayer  after  the  service.  Then 
they  expressed  a  strong  desire  to  have  us  send 
them  a  teacher,  who  could  tell  them  more  about 
the  things  of  God,  for  they  said  that  they  did 
not  want  to  live  in  sin  any  longer,  and  wanted 
to  know  how  they  were  to  serve  God. 

I  cannot  tell  you  how  my  heart  yearns  over 
these  people.  Their  understandings  are  so 
darkened  and  their  lives  so  sinful.  Just  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  them  occasionally  will  do 
little  good,  for  they  straightway  forgot  all  they 
were  taught.  Constant  teaching  is  their  great 
need,  until  some  of  their  own  number  will  be 
able  to  teach  their  own  people.  To  this  end  we 
are  now  laboring,  to  discover  the  best  places  in 
which  to  establish  small  schools,  and  then  place 
one  of  our  older  boys  there  to  teach  and  be  a 
kind  of  Bible  reader  to  them. 

We  believe  that  one  of  the  strongest  obstacles 
to  our  evangelistic  work  is  the  native  gree-gree 
(devil)  bush.  Every  boy  and  girl  on  reaching 
a  certain  age,  must  pass  through  the  rites  and 
ceremonies  that  are  there  carried  on.  When 
they  leave  this  place,  they  seem  ever  afterward 
to  be  under  its  influence.  No  secret  society 
binds  its  members  more  closely  than  does  the 
devil  bush  ;  for  never  a  word  will  they  tell  on 
one  another  as  to  their  wrong-doing.  Whip¬ 
ping  starving,  imprisonment — none  of  these 
will  compel  them  to  divulge  their  secrets.  The 
reason  for  this  is  that  they  believe  if  they  do 
what  they  have  been  taught  not  to  tell  they  will 
die  at  once.  Since  every  native  is  afraid  of 
death,  he  closely  guards  his  tongue  on  these 
points,  however  loquacious  he  may  be  on 
others.  What  is  done  in  these  devil  bushes 
is  never  known  to  an  outsider.  Should  one  try 
to  learn  them,  he  will  be  a  marked  man,  and 
some  day  he  will  wake  up  and  find  himself  a 


■dead  man,  as  the  Irish  would  say.  The  one  fact 
that  we  have  learned  with  regard  to  these  secret 
societies  is  that  they  perform  circumcision  on 
every  male  child,  but  this  is  among  the  Congo 
people. 

Because  of  this  influence  of  the  devil  bush  on 
the  child’s  life,  we  deem  it  best  to  get  possession 
of  their  children  before  they  have  been  in  these 
places,  when  it  will  be  easier  to  bring  them 
under  the  gospel’s  power,  and  we  are  therefore 
bending  our  energies  in  that  direction  for  our 
future  work. 


